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Monday, November 17, 2008

I've been thinking a lot lately about how little I "give back" to society. We donate clothes and other items to Goodwill and to the blind, but those acts are pretty passive.

This year I'm going to bake some cookies and give them to some of the elderly people at the nursing home where D's grandma lives. Since some may be diabetic, I might just do gingerbread cookies and pipe on smiley faces.

Every year we have a holiday party for D's friends. Usually they bring a white elephant gift and we laugh at the ridiculous junk that people bring to exchange. This year, I told David I'd like to have everyone also bring canned food & non-perishable items that we can take to Northwest Harvest, a local food bank.

I want to be in the practice of doing charitable things so that when the baby comes, we just naturally teach the child to be charitable also. I already invision going through my child's room full of the toys he/she will inevitibly have and boxing up things he/she doesn't use anymore to give to children who aren't as fortunate. I also think visiting a children's hospital and sitting with a sick child will be beneficial to both children, right?We should set aside money (other than contribution money) for those on missions in other countries that our local congregation supports. Right? I mean, yes the congregation supports them but why stop there? I'm sure $20 means more to them than it does to us.

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comments commented:

One thing you can do with your little one that I did with both of my boys is sign them up to participate in research at the UW. You should get info sent on this when you apply for the birth cerficate (I think I got the info straight from Evergreen with Will and then later through the mail with Lorinc since he was born at home). There are a number of projects that the Psych department there does (through places like the Infant Cognition Lab) that they need infants and young children for. None of them are harmful (obviously) and it's an easy way to give back as far as greater scientific knowlege goes. Lorinc has been in 2 studies and Will has been in 4 or 5 by now.

With Will, now that he's older, he's learning to "earn" money (coins) by doing odd jobs and he puts a quarter from his piggy bank (or my purse if we forget Sunday morning) into the collection plate. I want giving back to God to seem normal to him. I also often take the boys when I clean the building and such, and let Will "help." I also try to have him help if I'm doing something for someone else, like cooking a meal to bring to a new mom and such.

We also do some donations to Charities through matching contributions at Eric's work, and we talk to Will about where we are giving and why.

I hope at some point I can find some actual volunteer opportunities that the kiddos can go with me to, but most places don't want infants/toddlers along so it's a bit more difficult at this season in my life.

I'll definitely be looking for opportunities to show my daughter -as she gets older- how to give back. We also strongly support The Heritage Foundation. They have strong conservative values and work hard in Washington D.C. to keep this country on track!